^Ludicrous response, curtain. 100's of great theater songs have nothing to do with moving the plot forward or fleshing out character, but are high points of their shows. Here's a few-- other posters can add other examples.
GET ME TO THE CHURCH ON TIME COFFEE BREAK HELLO DOLLY MAME ONE (ACL) NYC (ANNIE)
thank you, tree. How ridiculous. Let's take Bullets, for instance The song "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" does not move the plot nor flesh out a character. It's totally relevant in revealing how someone feels at the moment.
Jane, I thought you were being snarky with your first remark. I think that song placement is suppose to tell us something about David's character. But it doesn't really work and sort of proves my point. If you stop and sing a song for it's own sake, you stop the action of the show and easily lose the audiences' attention. Musical Comedy 101 will tell you that.
Oh, ok. No, I'm serious. If a song is good and I like it, then I have no problem with it. If a song doesn't move the plot along or flesh out a character, then it usually has "something" to do with the show, no?
I had a perfectly fine time and I was expecting a much messier show based on the reviews. Nick Cordero was impressive (and handsome), Betsy Wolfe absolutely shined in her Act II songs, Marin Mazzie and her "don't speak"s tickled me, and Zach Braff was a much more natural stage actor than I was anticipating.
Was it the best show I've seen? Not even close. But it was a perfectly servicable evening of theater. I don't need every show I see to be earth-shaking in its originality, and this at least made me laugh and enjoy myself for a few hours.
MrRoxy, that ad has been running from the first day after the show opened. They probably had those quotes in advance.
There were a bouquet of great pull quotes from many different positive reviews, and it wouldn't surprise me if many of them show up in this Sunday's NYT Arts section. I think the show will be heavily marketed.
CZJ at opening night party for A Little Night Music, Dec 13, 2009.
Well, we get the Sunday Times arts section delivered with Saturday's paper, and I just looked at it. Wow-- a full two page ad loaded with some of those pull quotes. They're certainly going all out on the marketing front.
CZJ at opening night party for A Little Night Music, Dec 13, 2009.
I had the opportunity to see the show today, and without giving a full review, I just wanted to say:
Did anyone else think that Christine Baranski would have been perfectly cast in the the the role of Helen? I have never seen the movie (but intend to) but I thought the stage depiction of the role would have been perfect for Baranski. She's obviously not available (between "The Good Wife" and filming "Into the Woods") but I would certainly love to see her in this dynamite role!
Saw the show last night, and I enjoyed it. To paraphrase Man in Chair, it's a pleasant evening's entertainment. Glad I saw it because I needed something to clear the bad taste of ROCKY from my mouth.